Brilliantly Odd Weight-Loss Tip of the Day: Sniff Fruit!

While there’s a lot to be said about how smell interacts with taste (and trust us, we’ve read a lot about this scientific phenomenon), a new study revealed that simply the act of sniffing fresh fruit will encourage people to make better dietary decisions.

The University of Bourgogne (a.k.a. the place Burgundy wine and Ludo Lefevbre come from) discovered that pumping a room full of pear scent would inspire people to make healthier choices. Why pears, you might ask? Why not another scent like apple or radish or rain? Who knows, it’s Burgundy. But here’s the results of the study, via The Cut:

They split 115 volunteers into two groups, informing them they would test how people communicated while they ate (tricksters!). One group waited in a room smelling of fresh-pear scent, the other waited in a waiting room smelling of room. Seventy-five percent of the control group selected a decadent-brownie-dessert option, while more than half of the group coming from fruit-fragrance room picked an apple-y option.

The scientists speculate that the smell of fruit could have registered in subjects’ subconscious, conveniently bubbling up to influence their food choices.

You know what, we’re going to misinterpret this (because we’re wimmen and don’t understand science good), and go on a diet where we eat nothing and sniff fruit for our nourishment instead. We’ll be as hot as that stock photo model above, who is gorging herself on citrus scent.